Dealing with a primordial spirit was not a matter of dan fire alone—but without question, dan fire was the most common method and the easiest to master. Unfortunately, dan fire had always been the exclusive patent of human alchemists, and the Nine Infants plainly could not command it. As for the other special techniques, those too lay beyond its reach. Such things were not a question of raw power; they depended chiefly on whether one had the gift.

Lacking any means to counter a primordial spirit—that alone doomed the Nine Infants to defeat. It had no way to touch Wei Zhao at all.

"You flatter me." Wei Zhao was entirely at ease now. In truth, from the moment he learned that his opponent was also a primordial spirit, all his tension had drained away—not merely because he knew the other could do nothing to him, nor merely because he himself commanded dan fire, but chiefly because the Nine Infants' very existence confirmed one thing: this environment posed no direct danger to a primordial spirit!

As a primordial spirit, what Wei Zhao feared most had never been his opponents, but the fickle, ever-shifting hand of nature.

Never mind that even a mighty being like the Nine Infants could do nothing against him—no primordial spirit, however formidable, was anything but frail before nature. One careless moment, and it would be toyed to death, and toyed to death in ten thousand ingenious ways.

"Hmph! Don't think I truly can't deal with you, brat. If you won't cooperate, I'll kill her right now!" In its fury, the Nine Infants turned its gaze upon Duanmu Yu. It could do nothing to Wei Zhao himself—but it had not forgotten that a hostage stood ready at hand.

"The great Nine Infants, stooping to such a despicable trick. Aren't you ashamed?" Wei Zhao frowned slightly. He himself had nothing to fear, but he must ensure Duanmu Yu came to no harm. He could hardly stand by and let her become the target of the creature's spite.

"I'm not a human—what have I to be ashamed of?" The Nine Infants snorted. To it, as to the vast majority of spirit beasts, practicality was king. What was honor worth?

With that, the eyes of its centermost head suddenly went a dull dark red. It made no other superfluous movement, yet an invisible surge of spiritual-sense energy burst instantly from its body—Primordial Spirit Devouring!

At the same moment, Duanmu Yu, who had been perfectly fine a heartbeat before, suddenly stared blankly ahead, the light in her eyes beginning to fade.

A soul-snatching hand? Wei Zhao was startled. He did not know the exact name of the Nine Infants' move, but he could clearly sense how closely it resembled the soul-snatching hand of the Old Sect of the Western Hills—and judging by Duanmu Yu's condition, the effect was much the same.

Wei Zhao hastily cast a bolt of dan fire, hoping to interrupt the technique. To his surprise, the dan fire struck the Nine Infants' head and the creature gritted its teeth and endured it outright, hell-bent on devouring Duanmu Yu's primordial spirit.

Wei Zhao grew anxious. If her primordial spirit were truly sucked away by the Nine Infants, Duanmu Yu was finished. Yet even dan fire could not interrupt the creature—what was he to do?

Just then, a thought stirred in Wei Zhao's mind. He simply gathered Duanmu Yu's primordial spirit into the jade pendant's space. He had done exactly this once before, back in the world within the mirror—first time awkward, second time practiced—and he had no scruples left about it.

Thus the Nine Infants, having barely begun to draw anything in, suddenly closed on empty air. Primordial Spirit Devouring was, after all, a perilous technique; once it failed, the backlash was no small matter. The Nine Infants' primordial spirit convulsed, and the head that had performed the devouring drooped limply. Clearly, its vitality had been gravely wounded.

"What the hell are you playing at?" the other eight heads raged in unison. The loss this time was far greater than all the earlier bolts of dan fire combined. Small wonder the Nine Infants was going berserk.

"Whatever you're playing at, I'm playing at," Wei Zhao said mildly.

"You can use Primordial Spirit Devouring too?" The Nine Infants was startled. Whatever else might be said, Wei Zhao had indeed whisked Duanmu Yu's primordial spirit away in an instant. To a creature ignorant of the truth like itself, this was without question Primordial Spirit Devouring—and it even seemed that Wei Zhao's version was the stronger, for how else could he have snatched the prey right out of the tiger's jaws?

"Guess," Wei Zhao tossed off. Strictly speaking, his imperfect version of the soul-snatching hand was indeed rather like the other's Primordial Spirit Devouring, though its power was surely far inferior—at least, against a primordial spirit of Duanmu Yu's caliber, his version would have been utterly useless.

"Mystifying tricks!" The Nine Infants snorted. So it said, but its behavior made plain that it had been somewhat cowed. This human primordial spirit was truly unfathomable!

Had it not been for this accident, it would have meant to try Primordial Spirit Devouring on Wei Zhao. It had no dan fire or like means of absolute suppression against primordial spirits, but that did not necessarily mean it was wholly helpless against him—at the very least, Primordial Spirit Devouring was worth a try.

The trouble was that Primordial Spirit Devouring was a highly risky move. One had to be certain that one's own primordial spirit surpassed the opponent's by at least two grades; otherwise, at best one suffered backlash, at worst one was devoured in turn—and then one could weep without even finding a grave to weep at.

The Nine Infants was itself at least of the Nascent Soul stage, while Duanmu Yu was merely a master of Foundation Establishment's great perfection. Choosing such a target for Primordial Spirit Devouring was of course no problem at all. But had it, in a fit of hot-headedness, chosen Wei Zhao directly—now that would have been amusing.

Wei Zhao's true body was that of a master of the Mystic Ascension stage! Even though his primordial projection was now constrained, that did not change his fundamental nature. For a Nascent Soul being to devour the primordial spirit of a Mystic Ascension master—if the Nine Infants had truly done so, the outcome would have been unforgettable for the rest of its life.

Unfortunately, the Nine Infants was not, in the end, a fool. Until it had plumbed Wei Zhao's depths, it would sooner die than commit such idiocy.

Seeing the Nine Infants visibly begin to lose its nerve, Wei Zhao could not help but be amused. He curled his lip and said, "All right, enough of your posturing, you idiot—we're wasting time. We're both primordial spirits. I'll grant that you're stronger than me right now. If you'd come and ask me nicely, I might, in a good mood, even play along with you for a while. But if you keep putting on airs, then fine—let's see which of us can keep up the act longer! Forgot to tell you—people have given me a nickname: the Lord of Posturing..."